Meet Our Staff

The International Justice Network (IJN) partners with law firms, grassroots organizations, and educational institutions to create justice initiatives. Our core staff brings these partners together and does hands-on work that ranges from legal advocacy to keeping our own team connected.

Tina Monshipour Foster

Tina is the founder and Executive Director of IJN. Tina serves as lead counsel in IJN's litigation on behalf of detainees imprisoned without charge at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and other international human cases against the United States government involving enforced disappearances, torture, extraordinary rendition, and prolonged arbitrary detention.

During 2008-09, Tina worked at Yale Law School as the Litigation Coordinator for the National Litigation Project of the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic. Her work involved advising and facilitating cooperation among litigators from across the United States working to remedy violations of international human rights and domestic constitutional law. From November 2004 to May 2006, Tina was an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Counsel for CCR’s Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative. Prior to joining CCR, she was a litigation associate at Clifford Chance US LLP, where she practiced white collar criminal defense and complex commercial litigation.

Tina clerked for Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway at the United States Court of International Trade from 2000 to 2001. She is a graduate of Cornell Law School, where she was an editor of the Cornell International Law Journal, and President of the Cornell Law Students Association. She received her B.A. with honors from Boston University, and is a graduate of BU’s Modern British Studies Program at St. Anne’s College, Oxford University.

Jeff L. Hogue

Jeff is IJN's Technology Director, as well as a member of the Board. He is a Supervising Attorney at Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc., where he provides direct legal representation to low-income residents of western New York. Jeff also serves as the project manager for Legal Services Corporation's Technology Initiatives Grants program, which is developing online, interactive interviews that produce pleadings and customized legal information for unrepresented litigants. He has a small technology and design consulting company and has provided technology consulting to several legal providers. Jeff serves as one of the upstate new York LawHelp.org outreach coordinators, and serves on the local Zoning Board of Appeals. He is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the Fulbright College Honors Program at the University of Arkansas.

Jeff was honored with the New York State Bar Association’s 2010 Denison Ray Civil Legal Services Award at the Legal Assistance Partnership Conference in Albany. Sponsored by the Department of Pro Bono Affairs, the award honors a legal services staff attorney who provides outstanding criminal or civil representation to low-income clients. As a skillful and effective advocate for low-income and disadvantaged clients, Jeff was recognized for his leadership in increasing access to justice through the use of technology.

Caitlin Steinke

Caitlin is a Staff Attorney at IJN. She provides direct legal assistance to IJN clients, and is part of the legal team that filed the Maqaleh v. Obama petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court. Having grown up in the Middle East, her passion for human rights has always had an international focus, and she has experience working on human rights issues in Morocco and Ghana, as well as promoting human rights and civil liberties through her work with Metropolitan Public Defender in Hillsboro, Oregon and Humanity in Action in New York City.

Caitlin graduated from Hofstra University School of Law, where she represented asylum seekers through the Hofstra Law Asylum Clinic. During law school, she was a recipient of the Charles H. Revson Law Students Public Interest (LSPIN) Fellowship and was awarded Hofstra Law's Pro Bono Service Award of Excellence. Prior to attending law school, Caitlin earned her B.A. in International Relations from Connecticut College, where she studied international human rights.

Former Staff

Golnaz Fakhimi was a Staff Attorney with IJN, where she was counsel in IJN's groundbreaking Al-Maqaleh federal civil litigation concerning the reach of habeas corpus jurisdiction to Bagram detainees. She was also an integral part of the Al-Maqaleh legal team prior to joining IJN, through her work as a student attorney with the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law's Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic, which served as co-counsel on Al-Maqaleh. As a law student at CUNY, Golnaz also worked as a student intern with two other law clinics: the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic (as a summer fellow) and the Economic Justice Project (progressing to teaching assistant). Golnaz joined the Bronx Defenders as an immigration attorney in 2014.

Sarah Howard was the Assistant to the Executive Director at IJN. She received her bachelor's degree in Latin American Studies and Human Rights at the University of Washington. Prior to working at IJN, Sarah interned with the ACLU as a legal researcher and with Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo in Argentina. She also served as a criminal investigator for a public defender office in Seattle and as a Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action.

Bryan D. Hoben was a Project Manager for IJN's Yemen Needs Assessment Project. He spent the summer of 2010 conducting a needs assessment for extraordinary rendition returnees in Sana'a, Yemen in a project co-sponsored by the Yemeni legal entity, HOOD – The National Organization for Defending Rights & Freedoms. Bryan is also currently assisting in development for the Elsa Collective, an income generation project for former commercial sex workers in Ethiopia. He holds a B.A. in English with a focus on Critical Theory from the University of Florida, has an extensive history of business management and worked in advertising for several years before deciding to pursue a career in international human rights law. Bryan is also an accomplished musician, having performed and released albums with a variety of rock music acts over the past twenty years.

Rehan Abeyratne was a Holmes Public Service Fellow and Legal Associate at IJN. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Human Rights Journal and an active participant in the Human Rights and War Crimes Prosecution Clinics. Most recently, Rehan conducted legal research for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). His past work focused on promoting the rule of law and accountability for government officials. Born in Sri Lanka, Rehan grew up mostly in India and his family now lives in the Philippines. He has worked in Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Rehan holds a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University. He is currently a Professor of Law in India.

Bree Bernwanger was a Legal Associate at IJN. She is a graduate of Georgetown Law, where she served as an articles editor of the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, a research assistant for the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law, and an intern at the Center for Applied Legal Studies asylum clinic. During law school, she also interned at the Washington Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and Sidley Austin LLP. Bree holds a B.A. in Government and Plan II Honors from the University of Texas. She grew up moving between Jakarta, Karachi, and Texas, and has studied and worked in Paris, Lima, and Washington D.C.

Elizabeth Donger was an IJN Intern and is a student at Yale University. She is a religious studies and international studies double major and hopes to study international human rights law after graduation. She also recently interned with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

Josh Herlands is a Harvard Law School Public Interest Fellow formally at IJN, focusing on litigation and advocacy on behalf of clients detained at Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Specifically, Josh was part of the legal team in Maqaleh v. Gates. His other work at IJN focused on advocacy and coalition building to end human rights violations such as torture, extraordinary rendition, arbitrary detention, and extrajudicial killing. Prior to law school, Josh spent several years working in finance and renewable energy development. During that time, he focused on the wind energy sector, helping project developers raise capital and bring projects to completion. Josh has also worked in wilderness therapy, leading backpacking trips for at-risk youth. Josh holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.

Alexander Karsten was IJN's first Human Rights Fellow. He graduated from the University of Buffalo Law school, and is now an attorney at the Empire Justice Center in Rochester, New York. He continues to work with IJN on several projects.

Katelyn Love was an IJN Legal Intern from Duke Law school, where she received a JD/LLM in International and Comparative Law. She was awarded the faculty-nominated Pro Bono Award of her class and was nominated to the National Order of Scribes for excellence in legal writing. Prior to law school, she attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received the David L. Boren National Security Education Program Scholarship, which provides up to $20,000 for full academic-year study abroad in a field critical to U.S. national security. Katelyn will be serving as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Judge James E. Baker on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.

Brian McCafferty was an IJN Intern and a senior at New York University with majors in history and sociology. He also currently interns with LawHelp.org, where he works in outreach and website maintenance.

Wilneida Negron was the Project Coordinator for IJN's Prisoners and Their Families Advocacy Project. She holds a Master in Public Administration and is currently completing a PhD in Political Science, majoring in comparative politics and public policy. Wilneida has spent over a decade working in the non-for-profit sector as a Social Worker and Program Coordinator.

Barbara Olshansky was IJN's Litigation Director. Prior to this position, Barbara was a Leah Kaplan Distinguished Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Stanford Law School. She also formerly served as Deputy Legal Director and Director Counsel of the Global Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where her docket included class action lawsuits concerning international human rights; immigrants’ rights; race discrimination in employment, education, the environment, and public health; and prisoners’ rights. Barbara recently co-authored two books: the first, Against War With Iraq, analyzes the international law ramifications of the U.S. decision to pursue unprovoked aggression; and the second, America’s Disappeared, discusses America’s “war on terror” detainees. She has also written three other books, including Secret Trials and Executions, which assesses the military commissions scheduled for Guantánamo detainees; Democracy Detained, which examines the secret practices of the U.S. government in the “war on terror” and The Case for Impeachment, which compares the current malfeasance of the Bush Administration with prior presidential administrations against which impeachment investigations were commenced. Barbara is currently the Visiting Professor for the International Clinic at University of Maryland School of Law.

Alix Reid was IJN's first Development Director. She is a certified mediator at the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago and works in the publishing industry. Prior to moving to the midwest, Alix was the Editorial Director, Vice President, and Director of Foreign Acquisitions at HarperCollins Children's Books in New York, where she published many critically acclaimed and award-winning books for young adults. She holds masters degrees in English literature from Harvard University and the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in English and history from Williams College, where she graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Lisa Riordan Seville is the former Communications Associate at IJN. Prior to joining IJN, she worked at Lapham's Quarterly in New York City, Counterpoint Press in Berkeley, California, and conducted research and investigative work for criminal defense cases in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated with honors from the Universtiy of California at Berkeley with a dual degree in English and Art Practice.

Erin Valentine was a Staff Attorney at IJN. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was a James Wilson Scholar and the recipient of the Blank Rome Alvin Ackerman Prize. At Penn, Erin was a senior editor for the Journal of International Law and the founder of the Penn Law International Human Rights Advocates. Erin interned in the gender rights division of the Legal Assistance Centre of Namibia and the litigation department of Clifford Chance US LLP. Prior to law school, Erin interned for Amnesty International in Washington, DC and volunteered at the Institute for Motivating Self-Employment, a micro-credit and woman's development organization in rural India. She holds a B.A. in International Studies from the University of California, Irvine where her research focused on transnational accountability, human rights, and US foreign policy.

Sabina Rizvi was an IJN Intern during her senior uear at Seton Hall University. A major in Diplomacy and International Relations with minors in Arabic and Economics, she planned to attend law school to study International Human Rights Law.